Victorian upper house MP Moira Deeming has resigned from the parliamentary Liberal Party and will move to the crossbench, less than two weeks after the party revoked her endorsement for the November state election.

The Western Metropolitan Region MP announced on Tuesday that she would continue serving in Parliament as an independent, bringing another turbulent chapter in her relationship with the Victorian Liberal Party to an end.

“My focus has always been, and will continue to be, on representing the needs and concerns of everyday Australians,” Mrs Deeming said in a statement posted online.

She said she had entered Parliament to fight for freedom, fair laws and families, while continuing to campaign against corruption, government debt and crime.

“To save our state from endemic corruption, crushing debt, and the rising crime crisis, Labor has got to go,” she said.

“I remain fully committed to seeing that through.”

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson confirmed she had received Mrs Deeming’s resignation from the parliamentary Liberal Party, describing the decision as an “absolute surprise”.

“This morning I received the resignation from the Parliamentary Liberal Party from Moira Deeming,” Ms Wilson said.

The distinction between the parliamentary party and the broader Liberal Party organisation remains important. Mrs Deeming’s statement confirmed that she had left the Liberal parliamentary team, but did not clarify whether she had also resigned her ordinary membership of the Victorian Liberal Party.

Her departure means she will no longer attend Liberal party-room meetings or be bound by its collective decisions. She is expected to serve on the Legislative Council crossbench for the remainder of her term.

Mrs Deeming has not announced whether she intends to contest the November 28 election as an independent or seek endorsement from another political party.

Her resignation follows the Victorian Liberal state executive’s unanimous decision on July 17 to remove her as the party’s number one candidate for Western Metropolitan Region.

The meeting reportedly lasted just 13 minutes. The party said at the time that it considered the matter concluded and wanted to focus on presenting its election plan to Victorians.

Mrs Deeming remained a member of the parliamentary Liberal team immediately after losing her endorsement, but the decision meant she would not appear on the party’s ticket at the election.

The Liberals subsequently reopened applications to fill the prized number-one position, which is considered highly likely to secure election in the five-member upper-house region.

The dispute that led to Mrs Deeming’s disendorsement began after an interaction with former Liberal leader Matthew Guy at a community function in Melbourne’s west in May.

Mrs Deeming complained to Victoria Police that Mr Guy had grabbed and pulled her during the interaction. Police reviewed CCTV footage and concluded that no offence had been detected.

Mr Guy rejected the allegation and demanded a public apology. Ms Wilson supported his call, saying an apology was reasonable.

Mrs Deeming later acknowledged that “headlock” was not the correct technical description of the interaction, but maintained that the contact had been unexpected, painful and distressing. She refused to apologise for making a complaint she said had been submitted honestly and in good faith.

She argued that disendorsing her for using an internal complaint process would establish a dangerous precedent and discourage members from reporting workplace concerns.

In a detailed submission to the Liberal state executive, Mrs Deeming proposed mediation and a joint statement recognising that Mr Guy had intended his actions as a friendly gesture in a crowded and noisy environment.

However, the party’s leadership and state executive remained unmoved.

Mrs Deeming briefly sought a Supreme Court injunction to prevent the state executive from meeting to remove her endorsement. She later withdrew that legal action, saying the injunction had given her time to recover, review the evidence and present her case.

Her resignation ends an extraordinary period of internal conflict that has followed her through most of her first term in Parliament.

Mrs Deeming, a former teacher and Melton councillor, was elected to represent Western Metropolitan Region in November 2022.

She became the centre of a major Liberal Party dispute in March 2023 after attending the Let Women Speak rally outside Parliament House, which was gatecrashed by a group of neo-Nazis.

Then-opposition leader John Pesutto moved against Mrs Deeming following the rally. She was initially suspended and later expelled from the parliamentary party after threatening legal action over statements she alleged linked her to neo-Nazis.

Mrs Deeming successfully sued Mr Pesutto for defamation. The Federal Court found he had defamed her, and he was subsequently ordered to pay more than $2.3 million towards her legal costs. She was restored to the Liberal party room in December 2024.

The judgment and the financial consequences for Mr Pesutto contributed to the internal pressure that ultimately resulted in his removal as Liberal leader.

Mrs Deeming’s preselection for the 2026 election then became the subject of another bitter internal contest.

In March, businessman and community figure Dinesh Gourisetty defeated her for the number one position on the Western Metropolitan ticket. Mr Gourisetty withdrew the following day after it emerged that he had provided a character reference for a man subsequently convicted of child sexual offences.

The party reopened the process, and Mrs Deeming eventually regained the lead position before the dispute involving Mr Guy placed her political future in doubt again.

Her disendorsement forced the Liberals to reopen applications once more, with several candidates seeking the position as the party attempts to settle its upper house ticket before the election.

The latest resignation will allow Ms Wilson to argue that the parliamentary dispute has finally ended, but it also creates a potentially difficult independent competitor in Melbourne’s west.

Standing as an independent would be considerably more difficult than contesting from the top of a major party ticket, but her name recognition and national profile could affect Liberal preferences and the distribution of upper house votes.

Her move also reduces the size of the parliamentary Liberal team and gives the crossbench another vote during the final months of the parliamentary term.

The Liberal Party enters the election seeking to win government after almost 12 years in opposition. Ms Wilson has attempted to focus her campaign on debt, taxation, crime and allegations of corruption linked to Labor’s Big Build.

Whether she formally directs her supporters towards the Liberals, runs against the party or withdraws from the election remains unknown.

The resignation completes a striking reversal from comments Mrs Deeming made after her expulsion from the parliamentary party in 2023, when she said she would never voluntarily leave the Liberal Party.

Three years later, following a successful defamation case, two preselection battles and another public confrontation with the party leadership, she has chosen to sit as an independent.

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